rd

Habakkuk 2

2 A vision, 5 Against pride, covetousness, drunkenness, and idiolatry.
1.I will stand upon my awatch, and set me upon the tower, and will look and see what he would say unto me, and what I shall answer to him that rebuketh me.
2.And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run bthat readeth it.
3.For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the clast it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait: for it shall surely come, and shall not stay.
4.Behold, dhe that lifteth up him self, his mind is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.
5.Yea, in deed the proud man is as he that transgresseth by wine: etherefore shall he not endure, because he hath enlarged his desire as the hell, and is as death, and can not be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, & heapeth unto him all people.
6.Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a tanting proverb against him, and say, Ho, he that increaseth that which is not his? fhow long? and he that ladeth him self with thick clay?
7.Shall gthey not rise up suddenly, that shall bite thee? and awake, that shall stir thee? and thou shalt be their prey?
8.Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee, because of men’s blood, and for the wrong done in the land, in the city, and unto all that dwell therein.
9.Ho, he that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, to escape from the power of evil.
10.Thou hhast consulted shame to thine own house, by destroying many people, and hast sinned against thine own soul.
11.For the istone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
12.Wo unto him that buildeth a town with blood, and erecteth a city by iniquity.
13.Behold, is it not of the kLord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire? the people shall weary them selves for very vanity.
14.For the earth shall lbe filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
15.Wo unto him that giveth his neighbour mdrink: thou joynest thine heate, and makest him drunken also, that thou maist see their privities.
16.Thou art filled with shame nfor glory: drink thou also, and be made naked: the cup of the Lord’s right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spuing shalbe for thy glory.
17.For the ocruelty of Lebanon shall cover thee: so shall the spoil of the beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the wrong done in the land, in the city, and unto all that dwell therein.
18.What profiteth the pimage? for the maker thereof hath made it an image, and a teacher of lies, though he that made it, trust therein, when he maketh dumb idols.
19.Wo unto him that saith to the wood, Awake, and to the dumb stone, Rise up, it shall teach thee: qbehold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is not breath in it.
20.But the Lord is in his holie Temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

Notes

1-a.
I will renounce my own judgement, and only depend on God to be instructed what I shall answer them that abuse my preaching, and to be armed against all tentations.
2-b.
Write it in great letters, that he that runs, may read it.
3-c.
Which contained the destruction of the enemy, and the comfort of the Church: which thing though God execute not according to man’s hasty affections, yet the issue of both is certain at his time appointed.
4-d.
To trust in himself or in any worldly thing, is never to be quiet: for the only rest is to stay upon God by faith, Rom. 1.17, Gal. 3.11, Ebr. 10.38.
5-e.
He compares the proud, and covetous man to a drunkard that is without reason and sense, whom God will punish, and make him a laughing stock to all the world: and this he speaks for the comfort of the godly, and against the Caldeans.
6-f.
Signifying, that all the world shall wish the destruction of tyrants, and that by their oppression, & covetousness they heap but upon themselves more heavy burdens: for the more they get, the more are they troubled.
7-g.
That is, the Medes and Persians, that should destroy the Babylonians?
10-h.
Signifying, that the covetous man is the ruin of his own house, when as he thinks to enrich it by cruelty and oppression.
11-i.
The stones of the house shall cry, and say that they are built of blood, and the wood shall answer and say the same of itself.
13-k.
Meaning, that God will not defer his vengeance long, but will come and destroy all their labours, as though they were consumed with fire.
14-l.
In the destruction of the Babylonians his glory shall appear through all the world.
15-m.
He reproaches thus the King of Babylon, who as he was drunken with covetousness and cruelty, so he provoked others to the same and inflamed them by his rage, and so in the end brought them to shame.
16-n.
Where as you thought to have glory of these your doings, they shall turn to your shame: for you shall drink of the same cup with others in your turn.
17-o.
Because the Babylonians were cruel not only against other nations, but also against the people of God, which is meant by Lebanon, and the beasts therein, he shows that the like cruelty shall be executed against them.
18-p.
He shows that the Babylonian’s gods could nothing avail them: for they were but blocks or stones, read Jer. 10.8.
19-q.
If you will consider what it is, and how that it has neither breath nor life, but is a dead thing.